Picking the right vehicle to fulfill your business needs requires a lot of thought. There are a number of options including vehicle types, make and model that make selection troublesome for business owners. Selecting an inappropriate vehicle or purchase method could result in big losses and could adversely affect your finances.

Following are some guidelines that could help you through the thought process and the key factors that shall be taken into account while choosing the best business vehicle.

Vehicle Price and Purchase Method

Price or size of the monthly lease payments are often the main consideration for choosing a business vehicle. However, whilst the price helps narrowing down your options quickly, we should not overlook the other factors that might affect the smoothness of the operations. Sometimes, choosing the low-priced alternative may prove to be business-wise incompetent in the long-run.
So what needs to be done? Well, the key is to involve the management, drivers and other relevant employees in the decision making process to identify the vehicle’s basic functional and financial requirements. A step by step approach should be taken in order to ascertain the best vehicle and fleet size for your business. Here are a few factors that should be considered:

The Drivers

It is of utmost importance that the driver has enough know how, skills and experience to operate and handle the preferred vehicle. Otherwise, the business will have to incur training costs. Apart from that if the vehicle fleet is upgraded to more complex vans without the proper training, the risk of road accidents and wastages & spillages increases significantly.

The vehicle will mainly be operated by the driver, so you also need them to respect and use the vehicle with care. It may lead to a longer asset life. Therefore, it is imperative that the vehicle is comfortable for them.

The selection becomes easier if the driver’s personal preferences in terms of interior design, safety & comfort options and handling are known. Vehicle manufacturers of current age are making use of technology and modern human engineering techniques to improve their vehicle’s driving experience, which is also a plus point for drivers.

The Payload

One of the prime considerations to be made is the accurate assessment of the payload and access to load space required from the vehicle. A vehicle too small would be detrimental to your business operations, while a vehicle too big would just increase your cost.

Not only unfitting payload affects fuel efficiency, it could result in road risk and criminal convictions for drivers and companies. More information on loading your vehicle acceptably can be found at gov.uk website.

Vehicle Usage

It is advantageous to consider the number of commuters, payload, destination and stretch of the trips in order to determine the engine size and power output. Then you need to consider the fuel type. Do you require the torque of diesels engines? Or are you comfortable with the lower list price of the petrol engines? It’s a huge debate which one is the best, diesel or patrol.

Another substantial factor is the mileage your business has to cover per year. This is of paramount importance in case you leased vehicles.

Fuel Efficiency and Emissions

There are various means to make your vehicles fuel efficient. Taking the right make and model could also help maintain vehicle efficiency. Check the tool on the gov.uk website to find out fuel consumption and emissions figures for different Lorries and vans.

Feedback and Reinforcement

In the present day, it is important for a business to implement change effectively and adapt to the ever changing business environment so that it could survive and maximize opportunities. It can be practical to re-assess your vehicle acquisition strategy in volatile conditions and perhaps consider an alternate way to source business vehicles. Purchasing, contract hire and lease are not always favorable for all businesses.

Taking note of all these considerations before selecting the business vehicles will ensure that you take minimal risks and prevent any mistake which may harm the business in the long-run.

Kevin Price

Kevin Price is the host of the nationally syndicated Price of Business show. It is one of the longest running shows of its kind in the country. He is also an author of several books, editor on several sites, and an award winning journalist.

No articles on this site should be construed as the opinion of PriceofBusiness.com . Do your homework, get expert advice before following the advice on this or any other site.

Admins

Editor

Kevin Price is the host of the nationally syndicated Price of Business show. It is one of the longest running shows of its kind in the country. He is also an author of several books, editor on several sites, and an award winning journalist.

No articles on this site should be construed as the opinion of PriceofBusiness.com . Do your homework, get expert advice before following the advice on this or any other site.